Friday, October 19, 2012

This applies to the sham

Escalation of commitment

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Escalation of commitment was first described by Barry M. Staw in his 1976 paper, "Knee deep in the big muddy: A study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action".[1] More recently the term "sunk cost fallacy" has been used to describe the phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the cost, starting today, of continuing the decision outweighs the expected benefit. Such investment may include money, time, or — in the case of military strategy — human lives. The phenomenon and the sentiment underlying it are reflected in such proverbial images as "Throwing good money after bad" and "In for a dime, in for a dollar" (or "In for a penny, in for a pound").
The term is also used to describe poor decision-making in business, government, information systems in general, software project management in particular, politics, and gambling. The term has been used to describe the United States commitment to military conflicts including Vietnam in the 1960s - 1970s and in Iraq in the 2000s, where dollars spent and lives lost justify continued involvement.[2]
Alternatively, "irrational escalation" (sometimes referred to as "irrational escalation of commitment" or "commitment bias") is a term frequently used in psychology, philosophy, economics, and game theory[citation needed] to refer to a situation in which people can make irrational decisions based upon rational decisions in the past or to justify actions already taken. Examples are frequently seen when parties engage in a bidding war; the bidders can end up paying much more than the object is worth to justify the initial expenses associated with bidding (such as research), as well as part of a competitive instinct.

Scott and Tessa always protest they don't want to sound cliche but they are one.

3 comments:

  1. A perfect explanation for some of the really weird, screwy stuff Team VM and Jessica have dumped on the fans.
    Can't wait to see how they escalate this season. That TEB photo has started them off just perfectly. Lol

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  2. woah!!! happy halloween lol

    OK there's a commercial very similar to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX45oggm914
    playing on CBC's coverage this weekend of Skate America

    WHO DOES THESE? Honestly, this would get a bad mark as a junior high school project. The new one is even worse - for example, not only is that a relatively shaky Goose for TS, the new one shows how she wobbled and put a hand down on the landing. Seriously, you couldn't pick something out of the 99.9% flawless video of them? And the quality....it's only believable this is real because everything they do is equally crappy.

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    Replies
    1. The Halloween blog banner ended up more true crime than trick-or-treat, but I just went with it.

      I believe that when Barb and Debbi can't promote themselves through the front or back door, they half ass everything. Both of them are just going through the motions - if that - at their actual jobs. Both have an extremely patronizing, low opinion of the public that ends up self-serving. If the public is that lame, nothing you do is going to matter. Shifting blame onto the fandom (which, again, has the most dismissable demographic in all of sports and all of marketing - middle-aged women)allows them a perspective that nothing much they do can shift the public.

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